Miele KFN 7934 D Review

Design and Features

• Taller and wider than most integrated models
• Flexible fridge space
• Door pocket spacing could be better

Most integrated fridge freezers, such as the Hotpoint HTC20T322UK, are designed to fit into a 60cm slot, so they’re even narrower than this. As an external door needs to be fitted, you also lose depth to get that flush finish.

To combat the lack of space, the Miele KFN 7934 D is 15cm wider than most integrated modes and 16cm taller. That means that this model won’t fit in a standard 60cm gap, but if you’re having a new kitchen fitted, you can make space for it.

Going wider has an effect on space. With the Miele KFN 7934 D you get 284L of fridge space and 98L of freezer space for a total of 382L of space. In comparison, the Hotpoint HTC20T322UK has 212L of fridge space but only 68L of freezer space, for a total of 280L.

That’s an improvement, and more space than you get with a typical freestanding model. Take the Hisense RB3K330SAIC as an example. This is a 60cm wide appliance, but it’s a Hisense KitchenFit model, designed so that its door doesn’t protrude beyond your counters. This model has 215L of fridge space and a bigger 115L freezer for a total of 330L.

As you can see from the specs, the fridge is by far the main part of the Miele KFN 7934 D. It’s largely well-designed, too, with three adjustable shelves, a bottle rack, and one fixed shelf.  

Although the fridge isn’t that deep, I managed to fit 2L bottles of drink on the bottle racks, and I could still shut the door.

Shelf space is adjustable, but there’s room on the lowest setting for each to fit in regular drinks cans; larger cans will fit if you use the wider spacing options on some shelves. 

There are four door pockets, with one that has taller sides at the bottom, and then three slightly shallower ones above. Those three have a choice of five positions. 

To fit larger milk containers in the bottom pocket, I had to move the shelf above up one position. That’s fine, but it does mean that the rest of the spacing is a little tight. With the smallest gap between door pockets, I couldn’t get a regular bottle of ketchup in place. 

I’d be tempted to lose a door pocket in that case to make room for some taller items. I do like the spacing on the top pocket: big enough for a can of drink and deep enough to take a tub of butter.

There are two drawers in the fridge. A smaller DailyFresh ExtraCool one for keeping meat, fish or cheese; a deeper drawer for fresh produce with an adjustable humidity slider.

Open the freezer compartment and there are three drawers to choose from. These slide out easily enough, and the top two are relatively deep (26.7cm and 27.5cm). You should be able to store most things in these drawers, even a frozen pizza.

The bottom drawer is very small, and just 18.8cm deep, so just big enough to keep a loaf of bread in, although items that can be squidged around more, such as frozen chips, will go in. Clearly, this is a fridge freezer that is mostly designed for cold food, with just a small amount of freezer space.

Controls are simple, with individual temperature controls for the two compartments. For the freezer, I could choose between -24°C, -20°C, -18°C and -16°C. For the fridge, the choices are 2°C, 3°C, 4°C or 6°C.

The Miele KFN 7934 D is compatible with the Miele app, connecting to your home network via Wi-Fi. Via the app, you can monitor your fridge-freezer and get notifications if there’s an issue, such as a door being left open.

Performance

• Stable freezer temperatures
• Good average fridge temperature

To see how well a fridge does, I load it with freezer blocks to simulate food, and then use temperature sensors to take readings every 15 minutes for two weeks. After completing my testing, I found that the top of the fridge was closest to my target temperature of 4°C, averaging 4.52°C. Standard deviation showed that temperatures mostly fluctuated by +/-0.74°C.

The middle and bottom of the fridge were quite cold, and the average temperature throughout the fridge was 3.12°C. Standard deviation was a little higher than I’d want, with most temperatures fluctuating by +/-1.4°C.

In the cold drawer, the average temperature was 0.95°C, with temperatures fluctuating by +/-0.92°C. That’s pretty good and shows that this drawer is good for foods that need cooler temperatures to last for longer.

Freezer performance was good, with similar temperatures in each drawer, giving an average of -20.26°C, which is 2.26° colder than my target of -18°C. Temperatures were stable with most fluctuating by +/-0.76°C.

In my tests, running costs would work out at around £44.02 per year, which is 12p per litre of space. Given that most of the space here is fridge, so easier to cool, that’s quite high. In comparison, the Hisense RB3K330SAIC comes in at 8p per litre.

The freezer is a NoFrost one and I saw no frost build up during my time. In the fridge, some water droplets did initially freeze on the back, but the fridge does let these thaw and the condensate drains out of the hole at the bottom of the fridge, behind the top drawer.

Should you buy it?